Since writing my last Reflection, “Let Us Go to Bethlehem to See,” I have gone to Bethlehem and seen. I also went to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Mount of Transfiguration, the place where Jesus celebrated the Last Support with his disciples, the Garden of Gethsemane, the site of Jesus’ Read more…
Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York is blessed with a great number of faithful and dedicated people who bring Holy Communion to patients and their families in the hospitals we serve. Their ministry to the sick and their loved ones is an exemplary work of charity. We are Read more…
The Eucharist, the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). It is at the very heart of our Catholic faith and the depth of its mystery is without limit. Let us reflect on the great Read more…
Bringing Holy Communion to the sick is an important part of Catholic health care ministry. In this reflection, we will consider the gospel accounts of Jesus feeding the multitude in order to deepen our understanding of what this ministry is all about. The Gospel of John makes a profound connection Read more…
The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, when administered to the dying, is called by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “sacramentum exeuntium (the sacrament of those departing)” (CCC 1523). Nevertheless, it is not the sacrament of Anointing, but the Eucharist as ‘viaticum’, that the Catechism calls, “The last sacrament of the Read more…
The Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament that is frequently misunderstood. When I receive emergency calls asking me to come to a hospital to minister to a dying patient, the requests are usually for “last rites.” When, during more routine visits, I offer to administer the sacrament of Anointing Read more…
“The Church draws her life from the Eucharist.” With these words, Pope Saint John Paul II began his 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. He continues, In a variety of ways, she [the Church] joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the promise: ‘Lo, I am with you always, to the close Read more…
The virtues that characterize excellent ministers of Holy Communion was the subject of our last reflection. We considered the virtue of religion, by which human beings render fitting reverence to God, and also adoration, an exterior act of religion by which human beings show reverence to God with their bodies. Read more…
One of the most important parts of Catholic health care ministry is the administration of Holy Communion. This much needed ministry and sacred charge is carried out by bishops, priests, and deacons who, by virtue of their ordination, serve as ordinary ministers of Holy Communion. It is also carried out Read more…